A little book of the Green Man

Yoda

I found this lovely little book when I was at the British Museum last week. From the back cover:

His face stares down at us enigmatically from the corbels and capitals of churches across Europe. He has been linked to Robin Hood, Pan, the Oak King and the Holly King; he has been seen as a symbol of Life in Death and of Death in Life; he is echoed perhaps in the antics of Jack in the Green who goes before the May Day processions and he is evoked, too, in the leaps of the Morris Dancers of England, the Burry Man of Edinburgh and the Leaf Men of Switzerland. Nobody knows his real significance and yet everybody who sees him understands without knowing that he represents something very deep and very important. For such a blatantly Pagan image to have persisted in Christian churches all over Europe surely implies a tremendous power and significance. In this book there are whisperings and echoes and though there are no concrete answers there are some paths and avenues that the Green Man might lead you down for he has a story to tell - if only we knew how to listen.